First Snow & Christmas Spirit #Munich

♪ ♫ Better days- One Republic ♪ ♫

It was my first time experiencing "first snow" and it was really magical to wake up one day and suddenly see ice falling gently from the sky. Over months of Nov-Dec there were days it snowed heavily and days it was warm and the snow suddenly disappeared as 'magically' as it appeared. There were days there were weather warnings for black ice, and I learnt what this meant because the roads became slippery and there were huge chunks of ice everywhere. On the day when sufficient snow fell, I felt like a kid and made a snowman finally! :D

In this month of "firsts" when most people felt the winter blues, I somehow appreciated the cozy warmth of my room. I could read, watch shows and also finally got to use my snowflakes stencil for my nagomi art! I also discovered a new snack at the supermarket by Werther's (which most of us associate with that caramel candy), that had both popcorn and pretzels...unique to Germany!. I also tried LÖsch-Zwerg beer (which you can get from the supermarket) that is a Bavarian beer and won the world beer award. I also had Mcdonalds in Munich for the 1st time and they had a rather unique shrimp+nuggets box with fancy sauces. And on days when it wasn't too cold, it was nice to take long walks outside and feel the cool air on my face. On some days, the lake was semi-frozen and I could see seagulls walking on the ice :P

Armed with the 3rd booster and new COVID restrictions in place (2G+), I ventured further and met the Munich BTS army for the 1st time when they had an event at the bubble tea store and had my fix of dalgona milktea! :P There was also a cool rimpa-manga exhibition at the 5 continents museums which I visited for the 1st time. It is a kind of Japanese art that combines traditional art with manga characters, and my favourite was the one featuring Dr Jack Black.

Although the Christmas markets were cancelled, to keep the Christmas spirit alive, I did get some gabrannte mandeln= roasted almonds from Viktualienmarkt :) it smelt so so good just to walk past the store as the nuts were being roasted in the afternoon. Near the market there is also a shop called Chocolaterie Beluga, which sells chocolate and has a small sitting area for you to eat/drink. I discovered it because this is the season for hot chocolate and so I tried google-ing "best hot chocolate in munich" and this place popped up :P someone also reviewed the best hot chocolate places around the world and this was listed as one of them so I figured I definitely should pay it a visit. It is pretty special because it has a wide variety of chocolate spoons, including alcohol flavoured ones! (which you can either buy home or have it with warmed milk there). I decided to try the salted caramel flavoured one which was really really good : D

In keeping with this Christmas/winter spirit, the hirschgarten beergarten was also converted to a curling ring! And it was fun to watch people play while sipping on some glühwein :D The giant tree in Marienplatz is also up (every year they bring in a fresh one from the forest!) and is nice to admire both in the day and night time...it's majestic appearance gives us just that little bit of Christmas cheer that we need despite everything that's going on :)